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President’s Blog, January 2017

It’s no understatement to say that we are living in changing times. The Academic Senate has heard from many of you that you are concerned that changes may be enacted that fundamentally challenge our beliefs as faculty, or are at odds with the mission of an academic research university. Our home in Los Angeles means that we also consider the impact of policies on our neighboring communities. In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to a statement that was passed unanimously by the Academic Senate at its December 14th meeting, which reaffirms the shared values of the USC faculty. We welcome your thoughts on it.

I would also like to update you on some of the other activities of the Senate during this academic year. A personal highlight for me has been our advocacy to make USC a smoke-free campus. Coming from the Keck School of Medicine, I was aware of the great expertise we have in the Dept. of Preventive Medicine on this subject, and was delighted that Professor Jonathan Samet attended the September meeting to educate the Senate about this issue. In October, after getting feedback from our individual faculty councils, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution to make USC smoke-free. This was sent to the Provost, where it joined resolutions from the staff, undergraduate and graduate student assemblies. In a wonderful reflection of how shared governance works at USC, the Provost’s Office quickly moved to set this new policy in place (http://policy.usc.edu/smoke-free/).

I hope you will continue to stay informed of our actions through our newsletter, by visiting our website, through social media, or by attending the open monthly meeting. As always, you can also email any concerns or ideas to me personally at pcannon@usc.edu or the Academic Senate more generally at acsenate@usc.edu.